MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Two emergency medical technicians just stood around for minutes, providing no medical aid to a seriously injured Tyre Nichols who was slumped on the ground after being kicked and punched by five Memphis police officers, according to video shown Thursday at the trial of three of the officers charged in the fatal beating.
The video from officers’ body-worn cameras shows EMTs Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge standing and walking near Nichols while he sits then rolls onto his left side on the ground.
After about five minutes, the EMTs approach Nichols. Long says: “Hey man. Hey. Talk to me.” Nichols does not respond.
Former officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith are charged with acting with “deliberate indifference” while Nichols was on the ground, struggling with his injuries. An indictment says the former officers “willfully” disregarded Nichols’ medical needs by failing to give him medical care, and not telling a police dispatcher and emergency medical personnel that Nichols had been hit repeatedly. They are also charged with using excessive force and witness tampering. They have pleaded not guilty.
Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggles with his injuries. Smith’s defense attorney played the video in an effort to show the fire department personnel also failed to help.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies in Nichols’ death but they have not been criminally charged.
The police officers were members of the police department’s Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders. Launched in 2021, it was disbanded after Nichols’ death.
Prosecutors have said the officers used unnecessary force to punish Nichols for running away from them after he was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop. In her opening statement, prosecutor Elizabeth Rogers referred to the punishment as a “run tax.”
Former Scorpion Unit member Kyle Coudriet testified Thursday that he had seen teammates use violence and punishment during previous arrests, including one in which Haley and Martin punched a man suspected of pointing a gun at another officer and posting about it online.
Coudriet said he was “ashamed” that he was unable to stop his teammates from hitting that suspect. He was not present when his colleagues beat Nichols and he no longer works for the Memphis Police Department.
Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during a traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five former officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.
The Memphis Police Department fired the three officers, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., and all five were indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.
The Associated Press analyzed what the officers claimed happened on the night of the beating compared to video of the incident. The AP sifted through hundreds of pages of evidence and hours of video from the scene, including officer body cameras.
An autopsy report shows Nichols — the father of a boy who is now 7 — died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.
